USA Today Story on Algerian Hostage Crisis Is the Finnegan’s Wake of Our Time

There’s not a lot that’s know for sure about what the hell is currently going on in Algeria but here goes: militants from the terrorist group Al Mulathameen definitely seized a remote gas plant in the Sahara on Wednesday—taking an unknown number of hostages, including some Americans, in the process. Then on Thursday, without really running it by any other countries first, Algerian helicopters mounted some type of rescue mission. That operation was successful in the sense that some hostages—Algeria says 650!—were freed, yet the mission is still ongoing. There are an unspecific number of Westerners and Algerians and militants still unaccounted for.

The Algerian state news agency ANP said the operation involved airstrikes and a ground operation to free the hostages, some of whom were picked up by military helicopters. Algerian TV had said that four foreign workers—two Britons and two Filipinos—died in the operation and that 600 hostages were freed.

However, a spokesman for the terror group Qatiba told a Mauritanian news outlet that Algerian military helicopters strafed the gas complex, killing 35 foreign hostages—including five Americans—and 15 militants, the Associated Press is reporting. Seven survived, including two Americans, the spokesman told AP.

Adding to the confusion was an earlier AP report, citing an unnamed Algerian official, that as many as 20 foreign hostages, including an unknown number of Americans, had escaped their captors.

For everyone’s sake, let’s hope the truest report is that with the fewest caualties. For Algeria’s sake, let’s hope its state news agency is a more reliable news source than a spokesperson for a stateless terror group.